- cross-posted to:
- allagainstausterity@lemm.ee
- cross-posted to:
- allagainstausterity@lemm.ee
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I do not endorse this article, but I want to get people’s thoughts on this
I wish it had gone into detail about just how bad Trump’s ideas are.
https://www.cnn.com/2016/05/09/politics/donald-trump-national-debt-strategy/index.html
“First of all, you never have to default because you print the money, I hate to tell you, OK?”
“I said if we can buy back government debt at a discount, in other words, if interest rates go up and we can buy bonds back at a discount – if we are liquid enough as a country, we should do that,” Trump said. “In other words, we can buy back debt at a discount.”
I’d say it’s a very reasonable conclusion that would be justified were it not for the migration of wealth. Austerity (as seen in Europe’s sluggish recovery post-2008) prolongs recession while spending stimulated recovery here (and again after 2020-21) but while consumer spending has been robust broadly here - it’s also shown a lack of spending in proportion to wealth in the highest income brackets being a larger issue. The economy is growing but investment and relative wage growth has not. Wages have been going up yes, but not enough to offset inflation.
The argument should be about who has most benefitted from growth and how to best stimulate economic growth where it’s needed.
ELI5?
The article is basically saying since things are pretty good now the government should save money for a rainy day instead of spending which ignores (a) the economic benefits of smart spending on infrastructure which creates jobs and improves stuff like ports and highways and (b) that wealth is there but not spread around sufficiently so people with millions now have billions and most people are still struggling.
Ironically similar in some ways to the 1920’s and….not anxious to see how that turned out happening again.
Interesting article albeit with an inflammatory title. I feel like a greater focus on tax increases is the right way to go in high inflation times since it doesn’t disproportionately harm the poor but that seems to be a tough sell politically. Rather than focusing on constraining government spending so much (although being intelligent with spending is a good idea).
Austerity for who? It’s been non-stop austerity for ordinary people since the 2008 crash, and the people who caused the crash have been making out like bandits.
It’s the right time to tax the rich.
